Adafruit's circuit playground express is the next step towards a perfect introduction to electronics and programming. Adafruit has added functionality to the original circuit playground classic, including more sensors and making it easier to program. Users can now program with Microsoft MakeCode block-based or JavaScript programming. Additionally, the board supports Adafruit’s CircuitPython, a variant of the popular MicroPython, with the Python interpreter running right on the ATSAMD21 ARM Cortex processor. As users progress, they can advance to using the Arduino IDE, which has full support of all the hardware down to the low level to allow for the creation of powerful projects. Because the board can be programmed in three different ways, the Express has great value and re-usability. From beginners to experts, circuit playground express has something for everyone. Similar to the circuit playground classic, the board is round and has alligator-clip pads around it, which also allow for solder or sewn connections and the board can be powered from USB, a AAA battery pack, or a Lipoly battery. circuit playground express has built-in USB support providing for a simple plug and program approach with no special cable or programmer required. Compared to the circuit playground classic, the circuit playground express is more powerful at about six times the speed with approximately eight times the Flash and RAM of the classic version. It has a much larger speaker and driver, plus Adafruit has added an onboard infrared receiver and transmitter for remote control and communication between multiple circuit playground express boards, all while retaining the sensors and features of the circuit playground classic, such as capacitive touch, RGB LEDs, accelerometer, and more.
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- 10 x mini NeoPixels; each one can display any color
- 1 x motion sensor (LIS3DH triple-axis accelerometer with tap detection, free-fall detection)
- 1 x temperature sensor (thermistor)
- 1 x light sensor (phototransistor); can also act as a color sensor and pulse sensor
- 1 x sound sensor (MEMS microphone)
- 1 x mini speaker with class D amplifier (7.5 mm magnetic speaker/buzzer)
- 2 x push buttons, labeled A and B
- 1 x slide switch
- Infrared receiver and transmitter; can receive and transmit any remote-control codes as well as send messages between circuit playground express. Can also act as a proximity sensor
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- 8 x alligator-clip friendly input/output pins
- Includes I2C, UART, 8- pins that can do analog inputs, multiple PWM output
- 7 pads can act as capacitive touch inputs and the 1 remaining is a true analog output
- Green power LED
- Red "#13" LED for basic blinking
- Reset button
- ATSAMD21 ARM Cortex-M0 processor, running at 3.3 V and 48 MHz
- 2 MB of SPI Flash storage used primarily with CircuitPython to store code and libraries
- MicroUSB port for programming and debugging
- USB port can act like serial port, keyboard, mouse, joystick, or MIDI
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Published: 2017-09-18